The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War

Description

Crumbled shells of mosques in Iraq, the fall of the World Trade Center towers on 11 September 2009: when architectural totems such as these are destroyed by conflicts and the ravages of war, more than mere buildings are at stake. The Destruction of Memory reveals the extent to which a nation weds itself to its landscape; Robert Bevan argues that such destruction not only shatters a nation's culture and morale but is also a deliberate act of eradicating a culture's memory and, ultimately, existence.

Robert Bevan is a journalist, author and heritage-led regeneration consultant. He is an architecture critic for national newspapers in the UK and writes for publications internationally.

"The message of Robert Bevan's devastating book is that war is about killing cultures, identities and memories as much as it is about killing people and occupying territory. War is not just licensed murder but licensed vandalism. Since people are replaceable but buildings and cultures not, the destruction of buildings is often the more ferocious." --Simon Jenkins"The Sunday Times (UK)" (02/26/2005)